MUHLENBERG PORTRAIT DONATED TO SPEAKER’S HOUSE

Trappe, PA — A Muhlenberg descendant has donated a portrait of Frederick Muhlenberg to The Speaker’s House. This marks an exciting beginning for the permanent collection of artifacts and documents related to the Muhlenbergs and the house in which he resided. The portrait is a 19th century copy of an original portrait painted in 1790 by Joseph Wright, now owned by the National Portrait Gallery. The original portrait, along with a companion portrait of his wife Catherine Muhlenberg (whereabouts unknown), would have hung in their home in Trappe and traveled with the family when they later moved to Philadelphia and Lancaster. The portrait is presently on loan to Ursinus College and soon will be displayed on campus.

This portrait will be included in a project to commemorate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the 1910 Muhlenberg Album, a book that included photographs of family heirlooms. Muhlenberg artifacts are being sought to document for this project. If you have information regarding any such objects, please contact us so that they may be included in the study.

The mission of The Speaker’s House is to restore, preserve and interpret the home of Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, the first and third Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and to promote an understanding of leadership and American history and culture through research and educational programming. For more information, please call (610) 489-2105 or visit www.speakershouse.org.